It’s time for a Showdown. Written by Dave Wielgosz, illustrated by Tadd Galusha, and with colors by Triona Farrell, issue #2 of the Ignition Press series releases these week. We chatted about the book with Wielgosz at Ignition Pavilion at San Diego Comic-Con 2026.
DEANNA DESTITO: How has this San Diego Comic-Con been at Ignition Pavilion?
DAVE WIELGOSZ: It’s incredible. It’s kind of what you dream a comic book convention could be like. We have drinks. We have wonderful people coming through. We’ve done some signings at a bar standing up. It feels like something out of a TV show or a movie version of comic books, but it’s real comic books. It’s a lot of fun. We all have our individual tables; it’s a great artist alley setup. We have so many amazing creators here from all different generations, all different walks of life. It’s really fun.
DESTITO: So let’s talk about the book that you have with you at the show.
WIELGOSZ: I’m here promoting Showdown, which is by me, artist Tadd Galusha, colorist Triona Farrell, and letterer Clayton Coles. It’s a small town revenge story. It’s about a young woman named Trish Sullivan whose brother Michael died, and she goes back to her small town months after the death to challenge the man who killed her brother, Harvey Harlow, to a fight. She wants to hurt him, and if she can’t hurt him, she wants him to hurt her. Someone needs to be able to move on with their guilt, and she thinks this is the only way out. So our first issue is the challenge of the fight, then the characters give each other 48 hours to settle their affairs, and then the last issue is the climactic showdown itself.
Yeah, we have beautiful covers. Steve Lieber is our main variant cover artist. Tadd, our interior artist, does variant covers. Our first issue has variants by David Lapham and Joelle Jones. Not bad company to be in.
DESTITO: Not at all. Very awesome. So how many issues is this run?
WIELGOSZ: Five issues. The second issue just came out in July. Then #3 in August, #4 in September, and #5 in October. We wrap up the week of Halloween.
DESTITO: How has the response been to this?
WIELGOSZ: Very, very positive. The first issue did very well critically. We got some really wonderful write-ups, including on your wonderful website, The Beat, which I greatly was excited about. And then our podcasts have been very good to us, and comic stores have been wildly supportive.
We announced this book at ComicsPro, and the folks there were really supportive. And even this weekend, retailers came up to me and said, hey, I remember your speech at ComicsPro, and I want you to know we’re still ordering the book. So it’s been really wonderful. It’s a crowded market. There’s tons of books. I’m a relatively new writer. I was an editor at DC for many years. Now I’m a full-time writer, so I know that the industry for very new people is a struggle, but I felt very welcomed every single part of this business.
DESTITO: How does it feel going from editorial to now being on the other side working with editors?
WIELGOSZ: It feels really good because I trust my editors. I work with my editors, Jamie S. Rich. We worked together at DC and briefly at IDW, and he’s also just one of the best editors there’s ever been between his work at Dark Horse, Oni Press, Vertigo, DC, IDW, and now Ignition. No one has more editorial experience than Jamie. And then you include Filip Sablik’s experience, Jeremy Haun’s experience–it’s just a tremendous team of people who believe in comics. Every single person who works here knows everything about every single book they publish. It’s so endearing. You feel like you’re supported on every single side.
DESTITO: Having worked for a bigger company versus a company like Ignition, how does that help you as a writer develop your voice?
WIELGOSZ: I think on the one hand, I have good fundamentals, and fundamentals are the same everywhere you go. Be considerate of your collaborators, don’t overload the page with dialogue, be concerned about your panel counts, that kind of stuff. Where these editors helped me, coming from a more mainstream comic book background, they pushed me to be more personal, more myself, and maybe go places that in my other work I couldn’t go. And that’s no knock against DC. DC rules. But this book is a mature, not superhero, not existing IP book. We have to create our own boundaries and backyard. Where DC has a beautiful pre-established backyard that I’m very familiar with playing in.
DESTITO: What do you have coming up besides Showdown that you can talk about it or tease?
WIELGOSZ: The last week of July, I have a short story in the Detective Comics 2026 annual. The lead story is by Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott. It’s a Batman-Lobo team-up. And then my story is a 10-page short story with an artist named Fran Mariscal. We tell a story about a beautiful art studio in Gotham City where all these artists work together, they collaborate, they all have studios, and then an ugly man who is obsessed with Batman comes in and ruins it for everybody. It’s really exciting. I’m working with this guy Fran Mariscal who is a penciler, inker, and colorist. This is his first work in the American market. He’s from Spain. I think you are gonna be really knocked out by his art, and I really hope they’re also knocked out by my words.
DESTITO: If you had a dream character to work with, any character in the pantheon of comics, it doesn’t have to be superhero, could be anything, who would your dream book be?
WIELGOSZ: Oh, that’s such a great question. Superhero-wise, you know, I know it’s a very traditionalist answer, but I’m a big Superman guy. I got to write a few Superman short stories at DC, and anytime I can do that, I’m very excited. Same with Green Arrow at DC. But I want to answer your non-superhero question because it’ll leave me more excited because it doesn’t come up. If they ever did— no, I think Kelly Thompson’s doing Angel right now, right? Dynamite?
DESTITO: Yes.
WIELGOSZ: I’m a sucker for a dark private detective, you know. I think Kelly’s gonna crush it, but, you know, maybe the next or after the next iteration if they’re looking for somebody. I live in LA, I brood through those streets as well, like Angel. That might be fun.
DESTITO: That’s fun. Were you a Buffy fan?
WIELGOSZ: I was a Buffy fan. I had older cousins who were into Buffy, so I was like, oh, this seems cool. And then, I started watching it well after it was off the air, but my older cousins and my friend’s older sisters made me feel like, oh, this is like a cool thing I should find out about. They were correct.
DESTITO: I’m a huge Buffy fan. I fully support that.
